Preparing for Pilgrimage

The Google Map For Our Trip

 

2700 miles in 10 days. Crazy. Fun. Awesome. Epic.

The week of my road trip has finally arrived! Some of you probably already know of my travel plans, but for those who do not, I thought I would clue you in to what the next 2 weeks will hold for me. My best friend, David, and I have been talking about taking a road trip together for years, so it seemed like now was the perfect time. This pilgrimage is incredibly important to me as it will serve as a marker of the end of one adventure (graduate school) and the beginning of another (having a baby). And I'm so glad to be making this journey with David.

We are leaving Seattle this coming Friday, April 27, and will be gone for about 10 days, arriving home again on Sunday, May 6. Our furthest destination from Seattle will be Moab, Utah, before meandering home through California and Oregon. We will be in Boise, Idaho for about 24 hours, mountain biking and rock climbing with my cousin Nathan, before heading on to Utah. We will spend about a day at Joe's Valley, one of the greatest bouldering spots in North America, and then will head on to Moab. Neither of us have been to this area of the country, so we are eagerly anticipating great weather, epic mountain bike rides on slickrock, amazing desert bouldering, and fantastic views of God's incredible creation, especially within Arches National Park.

After Moab we will begin our long journey home with a brief stop in Salt Lake City and a night's stay in Reno, NV. The next day we will arrive in Bend, Oregon, with prior stops at Larsen National Park and Mt. Shasta in California. We will mountain bike in Bend for a day, followed by a morning of climbing at Smith Rock State Park, before heading home to Seattle. And while David and I are both really looking forward to the mountain biking and climbing we will do in some of the greatest places in the country, we are, strangely, almost more excited about the incredible amount of disc golf we are going to play along the way. There are 16 courses that we have mapped out that are potential places for us to play, and I would guess that we will actually play at least a dozen of them. While I definitely feel a little nervous about leaving my very-pregnant wife at home by herself, this is a trip that I just need to take, and I can't wait.

2700 miles in 10 days. Crazy. Fun. Awesome. Epic.